Parenting

Jumaat lepas, 13 April 2012, sahabatku Jaja (Azhar Imran) mendapat anak pertamanya, dengan isterinya Bashirah. Diberi nama Arzaq Emran. Nanti boleh panggil R-Z. Tahniah dan syukur.

Seorang lagi sahabatku, Romizi juga akan bergelar bapa, dengan isterinya Liza. Moga selamat semua hendaknya.

Bagi kami bertiga, tahun ini adalah tahun pertama kami menjadi ayah (aku bakal). Berbanding sahabatku Ijol, dia sudah punyai 3 anak lelaki : Farish, Imran dan Matin, Alhamdulillah.

Bagi aku dan Ija pula, 'nesting' sudah pun dibina serba sedikit. Ija lebih serius dan beria, manakala aku masih lagi lagi selamba dek. Buat rilek aje.

2 minggu lepas, Ija ada shopping baju bayi secara sendirian (kerana dia tau aku malas untuk shopping), tapi kantoi, dan terpaksa menunjukkan baju baby girl yang telah dibeli. Ija mula khuatir kerana menyangkakan aku akan marah (kerana shopping tanpa pengetahuanku).

Tapi rupa-rupanya, tanpa aku sangka juga, aku merasa sebak. melihat baju2 tersebut. Sungguh kecil dan comel. Dan aku ada menitiskan air mata.

Tiba2, walau masih bergelar bapa (2 bulan lagi Insyallah), aku mula memahami secebis rasa ibubapa terhadap anak2. Sepintas lalu, aku mula mengerti maksud pengorbanan ibubapa, dan unconditional love, kasih sayang tanpa mengharapkan balasan.

Aku terkenangkan jasa2 ibubapa ku yang tak mungkin dapat kubalas.

Memang, kita takkan mampu membalas, kita hanya boleh 'membayar'nya ke depan. Iaitu pada anak2 kita pula.

Terimakasih Mak dan Abah ku.

Ijol

Ijol atau Faizul Iqmal adalah sahabat baik ku yang paling utuh sehingga sekarang (Jaja selainnya). Aku mengenalinya sejak di Tingkatan Satu lagi (1992) di Bukit Bintang Boys School (BBSSS). 

Tingkatan Dua

Kami menjadi rapat ketika di Tingkatan Dua, di mana kami sekelas 2 Jingga. Sebenarnya, menjadi rakan karib selepas 'bertumbuk bergaduh' ketika itu. Dan sama2 pergi jamming ketika itu, bersama Jaja dan Mam.

Ketika itu, kami akan berborak selama sejam setengah setiap hari di telefon, sebelum berjumpa di sekolah selepas itu (sesi petang). Segala-galanya bermula setelah Ijol 'kelentong' kami yang dia pandai bermain pelbagai 'instrument', tapi rupa2nya hanya keybord. Aku dan Jaja ingin menyingkirkannya dia dari band, pasal tu dia telefon aku untuk mendengarkan permainan keybordnya dan meyakinkan kami untuk rekrutnya kembali.

Dari situ, tertubuhlah band Foreo. Ijol selaku pemain bass yang 'reluctant' (ini kerana dia ingin dia main gitar, tapi aku dan Jaja dah main).

Sejak itu, kami sentiasa berkongsi cerita lebih kepada kehidupan dan 'percintaan' (code name : Singapore). Haha.

Tingkatan Lima

Kami kembali sekelas ketika di Tingkatan Lima di sekolah yang berlainan, SMSJ SS14, setelah dia keluar dari sekolah MRSM Balik Pulau. Kelas 5 Jaya ketika itu.

Ketika itu, kami macam belangkas. Orang akan tanya "mana Ijol?" kepadaku setiap masa ketika jalan sorang2, dan "mana Zainal" kepada nya.

Ijol sebenarnya sangat pandai 'prank' orang. Aku selalu la kena haha. Tapi sangat jujur dan mementingkan persahabatan. Aku teringat ketika dia sudah punyai 'girlfriend', tidak seperti kebanyakkan orang lain, Ijol sibuk mencarikan aku 'girlfriend' juga, supaya sama2 boleh 'double date'. Haha manis kan.

Dewasa

Di alam kolej dan dewasa, aku sempat menjadi pengapitnya sebelah laki. Ijol satu2nya sahabatku yang sanggup telefonku dari Malaysia ketika ku belajar di Dublin, kerna ingin menyuruhku kembali ke Malaysia, kerana dia baru buka bisnes baru, jamming studio.

Ijol sangat bisnes-minded. Antara bisnesnya adalah : ayam golek di bulan puasa bersama arwah Muzammil, jual baju bersama Zaidi, jamming studio Soundscream, dan bengkel kereta KAF Kaizen di Kampung Subang.

Ijol bersama familinya ketika di UK

Baru2 ini, Ijol baru saja balik dari UK, kerana menemani isterinya Afzan belajar di situ, setelah 6 tahun berada di sana. Bersama 3 anak lelaki mereka, Farish, Imran dan Matin. 

Teringat aku, aku satu2 sahabatnya yang menghantarnya ke KLIA bersama keluarganya. Dan Ijol menelefon ku dari UK setelah mendapat anak pertama.

Lepak bersamanya kembali baru2 ini, benar2 mengimbas kisah remaja kami. Terasa kembali 17.

Selamat kembali, Ijol.



Siri Sahabat yang Lain

• Arwah Muzamil
• Alex Wong Tat Fong
• Azhar Imran
• Band Foreo
• Gitar Pertamaku
• Juara BolaSepak Tingkatan Satu
• Romizi 

Dengarkan deklamasi sajak tentang sahabat yang menyentuh dari Romizi.

Make money vs building business

In Robert Kiyosaki's Cash Flow Quadrant, he put it simply and clearly; The difference in building a business vs making quick cash. 

Cash is essential to a business, as important as blood to a body. BUT it is not the purpose. Cash is not the purpose for the company existence. Similarly, 'blood' is not the reason of why we live.

Hence, building a business a long stretch view. Perhaps, more than one life time. The real question is not "how can we fit in", but rather, "how can we contribute to the world". This ain't easy to answer.

The deeper question is more personal : 

"What DO I what to contribute?". 

"What is my value"?.

What is important to me"?

My Story

I've been teaching Math for the past 6 years. It was hard work, with 'self-employed' mindset, hourly rate. Just enough cash to make ends meet. 

This year Cikgu Azizul was kind enough asked me to join as a partner at Pulau Ilmu. It is ordinary tuition centre. But man, i was in 'paradigm shift'. I see the world differently now. I started to think big.

I visualised franchising the business to whole region. With our systematic 'profit-sharing' method with tutors, it is not impossible. How i see it grows. Wonderful.

At the moment, I'm not rich yet. I still have my private class to make ends meet. But building a business excites me more now. 

Now I realized i am teacher at heart. I started to think of how can I contribute to more people; to students, tutors and community as a whole.

I used to think teaching is a part-time work. But now, I have a responsibility to build a GREAT institution. Pray the best for me. Amin,

Why Death is The Best Inspiration

"Manusia yang bijak adalah mereka yang mengingati mati". Sabda Rasulullah.

 Steve Jobs said in Standford Commencement Speech 2005 , that " because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new .

For most of us, the death is an ultimate dateline. By knowing this, and keep reminding our self about it, we will do the most important thing : PRIORITISING!

First Thing First. : The Art of Living to the fullest

Only now I understand, living to the fullest does not means doing many little things, but rather, DOING THINGS THAT MATTERS. Personally for me, it is so simple; spending time with my family, teaching math, and creating new music.These will make my day.

Non of these activities about what I will getting; it is all about about GIVING. So my conclusion is simple ; To live life to the fullest, ONE MUST GIVE.

Because when we gone, people will remember by what U give, NOT what U have. For example : Steve Jobs. People care more about his creation, not his wealth.

"Carilah rezeki umpama kamu hidup 1000 tahun. Beribadatlah kamu umpama mati besok".

My view is ; why not we combine? Can our activities serve both? There is 'ibadat' in our work, and 'work' in our ibadat, insyallah.

So we got to focus about that, and 'relax' about the dateline, and live life to the fullest 'forever'.

As for me, what I want to give to the world : school that will be great without me, songs that inspired people after me, and zuriat that will excel beyond me. Amin.

Sajakiri.com : About (revision)

Logo baru

Salam dan selamat sejahtera kepada pengunjung sekalian.

Nama saya Zainal Zulia bin Zainuddin, pengasas dan produser untuk Sajakiri Music. Dimana saya terlibat hampir keseluruhan produksi muzik Sajakiri. Anda boleh nilai kerja di sini (Portfolio), Dan jika anda berminat untuk mendapatkan khidmat saya, sila rujuk di sini (Servis). Hubungi saya di sini (Hubungi).

Bagaimana Sajakiri Music ditubuhkan?

Secara rasminya, ia ditubuhkan pada 15 November 2009, pabila saya poskan lagu Mantra Buana ke Facebook. Pada mulanya, ia sekadar suka-suka, tempat luahan kreatif saya dalam muzik. Oleh kerana ia mendapat sambutan menggalakan (saya pos lagu-lagu baru setiap bulan), barulah tergerak hari untuk melibatkan diri dengan lebih serius.

Setakat ini sudah beratus lagu saya cipta, tak sampai 20 ia diterbitkan secara rasmi (pada Feb 2012). 

Sebenarnya, sejak remaja (berbelas tahun lalu) lagi saya sudah berjinak-jinak dengan penerbitan muzik. Saya mula merakam lagu baru dengan menggunakan hi-fi abah saya, yang punyai fungsi 'dubbing' kaset ke kaset, dan saya 'cucuk' line-in untuk merakam trek baru.

Bagaimana Sajakiri Music boleh membantu?

Untuk penggiat muzik, samada penyanyi atau produser yang mencari karya baru untuk dirakam. Segala macam karya kami simpan di sini : Sajakiri Music Library. 

Jika anda berminat dengan karya kami (di Set B dan C sahaja), kami boleh membantu anda merakam lagu tersebut, mengikut stail yang sesuai dengan anda.

Apakah matlamat utama Sajakiri Music?

Secara peribadi, saya berharap nama Sajakiri Music bukan saja gah di Malaysia, tapi juga ke peringkat Asia. Kami sangat berminat untuk berkolaborasi dengan dengan artis tempatan, dan juga antarabangsa. 

Bukan itu saja, blog kami, Majalah Muzik Sajakiri juga bertujuan untuk berkongsi dan membimbing artis baru terutamanya, dimana kami akan sajikan artikel baru berkala mingguan.

Untuk masa panjang, kami mempunyai matlamat untuk menganjurkan seminar, atau kursus produksi muzik. Dimana ia boleh dikembangkan kepada Kolej Muzik Sajakiri. Insyallah.

Semoga bermanfaat.

3rd week of Feb 2012

Ohana

Alhamdulillah. We did the routine scan with Dr Zulkhairi at Pusrawi Kota Damansara. last Wednesday. We are so happy that he confirmed our first child, which is due on July, is a girl. Yeay!

Me

I did 20 minutes meditation this week. It's so simple; sit in lotus position, close my eyes, and quietly wirid on my mind; Subhanallah.

The result; only if I do it consistently, I feel creative! Not only that, alot of my curiosity and 'long-held question' been answered. It seems random; I get the ideas when I'm driving, bathing, or sleeping. 

To add up, I see my life in 'map view', rather than 'street view', in a flash. I feel alot calmer too.

Sajakiri

Because of it, I got the idea to venture to another line of creative business ; web design for musician. This seem ambitious, but I've learnt a lot for the past 1 year and grew of passion for it. It's quite simple than it may seem. Thank U to Cpol for taught and helped me alot. I even thinking of team-up with him.

Thanks to my Blogging Mentorship with Aqiff & Aqill from MajalahNiaga.com, now I am confident to go to online/Internet industry.

Pulau Ilmu 

We already started Subang 2 free classes. Our aim is to make this branch as successful as the sister branch in Subang Perdana. And I will have to start to pay RM6,000 to Zul for the equity of 39% of the centre.

Azizul also told me Denai Alam/Bukit Subang is the way to go. So 3 branches within 5 years seems achievable & possible. Amin.

Creating our own luck

1. Don't blame others and play victim. Take charge and responsibilities. How unfair life it seems, we must see within ourselves first. As Carl Jung said "He who see outside, dreams. He who see inside, awakens.
2. If we want something, don't focus on lack perspective of it. Aware that we are already complete. We want it simply because we want to enrich our life experience.
3. Be thankful. Make a discipline effort to be thankful. What we focus, expand. If we are in state of thankfulness most of the time, things will fall into places, effortlessly.
4. Istiqamah. Small effort with a disciplined routine is much more effective than big effort but no discipline, or no continuous effort at all.
5. In order to be lucky, we must aware that we are already lucky.

Stop Doing List

Most of us focusing on "To Do List". And "Stop Doing List" seems odd. Inspired by favourite author Jim Collins, he suggested to write "Stop Doing List" on consistent basis. So that we can focus on what truly important. First thing first.

We had so much thing to do. So much activity. Sometimes we feel uncomfortable of doing nothing. For example, like most of people, i love 'facebooking'. But one day, my Internet was down for the whole day. So I really don't know what to do. 

After a while, I did something far more effective ; finish up my music project, spend time with my family, brainstorm for new idea and so on. 

Stop doing list is very personal. Try out yourself today. We will notice the difference between Urgent but Not Important activity with Not Urgent but Important one.

Ist week of February 2012

Ohana

2 major occasions last week. One is the engagement of Ija's cousin, Nurul Husna at Bukit Jelutong. Another one was a celebration on Fariz's 23rd birthday with Abah & Mak, in two separate occasions.

With Abah, we had steamboat dinner at usual place Johny's Summit USJ. With Mak & Co (HKA family, Kak Gi, Fariz, Etty & Ija), we went outskirt to Janda Baik, Zainai Guest House. A very nice village chalet, we lepak there from 8 am to 6 pm. We had so much fun barbecuing, playing cards Cluedo and Taboo, me playing guitar, laughing together. Thanks to HKA family, for bringing this whole new idea of vacation (and also the cards).

Ija said she had so much laugh & fun playing Taboo. Hanzo the gubbouy, an urban boy, taste a little bit of kampung feels, like playing water in the small river, and running across field of grass.

We had so much fun!

Trivia : 2 years back (early February 2009), we went to Manipal India visiting Khalis & Aff at the time.

Etty & Kak Gi

Pulau Ilmu

Alhamdulillah. Lin done a good job of collecting fees from students, as our policy has change to 'early of the month fee collection'. The amount collected for this week close to 5-figure sum.

And I also, for the first time, transferred salary to tutors.Happy me. We will meet Abah for the idea of 'what is the next step' for the centre.

Sajakiri Music

I'm in the midst of simplifying sajakiri.com, so people would know that I am a COMPOSER, and write song to sell. There is so many things to 're-vamp'. I have an intention to post a new song every month (demo), and charge production fee from RM3k to RM5k.

I will write in sajakiri.com of how I derive to the amount. And I would love to see a guest writer to write in sajakiri.com blog.

Setting up my priorities

Personal

My life priorities at the moment is my immediate family (Ija & unborn child), larger family (Ohana!), tuition business ( Pulau Ilmu), and music project (Sajakiri). That's all.

Sajakiri Music

Last week, I wrote about how I want to build another music platform, Muzikita.com. But today I realised, i was a bit 'overwhelmed' with the work. I already had so much in hand, let alone starting another big and ambitious project. Muzikita.com by itself is a good idea, meant for connecting music enthusiast, and musician alike. But to develop another brand name from scratch, is rather tiring.

Because I realised, my strength in music is not writing blog per se, but songwriting.

From Jim Collin's book, Good to Great, he wrote "what prevent us to become great is not because of lack of opportunity, BUT because we had so much of it.

So, in that sense i 're-format'myself, and will focus on my 'neglected' love, Sajakiri Music, as my one and only music platform.

Pulau Ilmu

As for Pulau Ilmu, alhamdulillah, the business is good. Me and Azizul planned to seek an investor, as we need more cash for working capital. We will offer 20% equity of the share, as Azizul owns 41%, and me 39%.

As I mentioned before, I want to stop 'home tutoring' within 5 years, so I can focus on building the business. What I had in mind, is to develop the system, so we can franchise it later.

This month is the first month ever I will pay my 'tutor' salary. We had enough cash to pay. And also, we will able to monitor the performance of tutor, as we had the "Penilaian Pemahaman".

Ohana

On a lighter note, me & Ija so looking forward on this 14 Feb, not because of the Valentine's day, but we have an appointment with Dr Zul for a routine check-up. And Insyallah, we will know the baby's gender.

Girl, I hope.

5 Years Plan

Alhamdulillah. After 4 months of marriage, life is so good so far. I am the part-owner of Pusat Tuisyen Pulau Ilmu, and will start my online music portal soon, MuziKita.com. Which I believe will help my pet music project, Sajakiri to gain recognition, insyallah. On family side, we also expecting a child in 6 month. Amin.

1 – My important goal to family is I want to buy the house that currently we staying. It’s double-storey, and we loved its space and environment. The owner yet to open to sell. I admit we also not ready; we don’t have that much cash. But there is the intention goes : I WANT TO BUY THE HOUSE!

2 – In 5 years, I intend to earn passive income, more than active income. I want to stop for good home tutoring, or at least minimise it. Currently 90% of my income are from there.

I want to earn as a business owner, rather than self-employed. I have vision of how to develop both businesses; Pulau Ilmu, and Sajakiri/Muzikita. I will write in detail in both blogs, PulauIlmu.com.my and Sajakiri.com. Check it out!

3 – I want to go Hajj with my wife within 5 years.  So got to register with Tabung Haji soon.

4 – No family planning haha! We will never know how many children we will have, but I wont ‘stop’ it. It’s a gift from God, and we believe in abundance. The more we have, more merrier, and more abundance in our life.

5 years ain’t that long. I still remember 5 years ago, when I just started teaching.